Kemira starts water treatment chemical company in St Petersburg
Kemira has started up water treatment chemical production in St Petersburg. According to the agreement signed between the two companies earlier on, the overall transfer to Kemira of the Russian Open Joint Stock Company NPF Pigment's production plant has now taken place.
Kemira plans to develop the plant's current production and will also construct a new production line for water treatment chemicals in St Petersburg. The total value of the deal and the investment will come up to about EUR 10 million.
The agreement is in continuation to Kemira's water treatment chemical exports to Russia started in the 1990's. The plant in St Petersburg produces 70,000 tonnes per year liquid aluminium sulphate, which is almost entirely used for the treatment of St Petersburg's drinking water.
�GUP Vodokanal Sankt Peterburga, the city's waterworks, is Kemira's most important Russian customer in water treatment chemicals. After we have completed the planned extension to our existing capacity, Kemira will head for all the water supply markets in north western Russia, in addition to our current activity in the St Petersburg area", says Mr Hannu Luhtala about the marketing views.
Kemira has completed the engineering design for the construction of the second production line, where Kemira plans to process locally ferrous sulphate produced as a co-product at the titanium dioxide pigment plant in Pori, Finland. It will be a further positive aspect that Nordic know-how and total synergy can be tapped into the water supply in north-western Russia by leading the sludge formed in drinking water production to the wastewater treatment plant, where it is useful for waste water treatment.
Kemira is also looking into possibilities of expanding its product range in St Petersburg to include other water treatment chemicals, e.g. polyaluminium chloride.
The water treatment chemicals business is among Kemira's strategic areas of focus. In coagulants Kemira now ranks as the biggest supplier globally. Further growth is expected in the areas of chemical-biological solutions.
In 2002, Kemira's water treatment chemical business had net sales of about EUR 200 million and production in over 30 countries.
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